Behind the wheel of the British softroader that can shut its engine off in traffic to save fuel. By STEVE COLQUHOUN.

First drive: Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4_e

The first time it happens, it's as if you're 17 again and you've embarrassingly stalled the car in the middle of a driving lesson. The engine was running a second ago, and now it's not. With nary a shake, shudder, wheeze or cough, it's simply no longer there.

Depress the clutch and the engine cranks back into life with a distinctly diesel-driven cough and is ready to go in the space of about one second.

The Freelander 2 TD4_e is, according to Land Rover, the world's first softroader fitted with "stop-start" technology, which can effectively shut down the engine whenever the car comes to a complete stop - at traffic lights, or in heavy traffic, the times when you are traditionally sitting with your foot on the brake, with the engine at idle.

Land Rover says its engineers have seen savings of up to 20 per cent on fuel consumption in heavy traffic, with a commensurate cut in emissions, although it's only officially claiming a little over 10 per cent - from 7.5 litres per 100km down to 6.7L/100km.

Land Rover Freelander 2

But all the feel-good fuel and emission cutting rhetoric will mean little to softroader buyers if the system isn't user-friendly. So how does it work in the real world?

Sampling the stop-start Freelander 2 in occasionally heavy suburban traffic near the Land Rover factory outside Birmingham, in England, we quickly concluded that it's clever, easy to use and has the potential to deliver substantial fuel and emission savings. And you'll enjoy the warm and fuzzy feeling that, in some small way, you've made a green choice.

It's initially a disconcerting sensation because it happens so easily - bring the car to a stop, take your foot off the clutch and voila, more likely than not the engine just dies. It doesn't happen every time though, because the system is canny enough to realize that activities that put a significant strain on the battery - running combinations of air-conditioning, lights, or the audio system, for example - need the engine running and it can sometimes over-rule a stop. Neither will it stop if the driver's door is opened and seatbelt released, as this signals that the driver is no longer in control of the vehicle.

If you find the sudden lack of engine noise disconcerting, or are annoyed by the pause as the engine cranks and readies itself for action, the system can be switched off via a button on the console, turning the car into just another diesel softroader.

Another feature is a green arrow on the dashboard that illuminates to suggest when you should change gear to drive with the greatest fuel efficiency. Follow the arrow's prompts, says Land Rover, and you should be able to achieve the suggested fuel consumption figure of under 7L/100km - not a bad result for a 1.8-tonne compact softroader big enough to carry five adults plus luggage in comfort.

We didn't always follow the arrow's upshift prompts immediately, occasionally revving the engine higher or taking off quickly to test the engine's responsiveness. Still, we managed an indicative fuel consumption figure of around 30 miles per gallon, which translates to a pretty handy 7.8L/100km.

Oddly, the tachometer has no redline marked - usually flagging the engine's maximum load - instead showing a rev range around to 6000rpm. In practice, though, we found the otherwise smooth and quiet engine became so raucous around 5000rpm that we chose not to press it further.

The stop-start technology is a user-friendly addition to a classy package that, at under $50,000, should compete strongly for consumers' hearts and wallets. It will be worth checking the spec sheet, though, to see just what "standard" features Land Rover has pushed on to the options list (leather seats and rear parking sensors are likely casualties) in order to create a competitive new opening price point for the range that should be somewhere in the $47,000-$49,000 ballpark.